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The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors predicting which employees receive employer‐funded commercial pension insurance contributions in Shanghai's zhenbao (town insurance) program, introduced by the Shanghai Government in 2003.

A series of hypotheses are developed to examine whether employees with characteristics that make them more influential constituencies will be more likely to receive voluntary commercial pension insurance contributions. The hypotheses are tested through application of a ReLogit model to data on 103,095 employees enrolled in the town insurance scheme in one district as at the end of 2004.

The study finds that only a small proportion of individuals in the sample receive commercial pension insurance. The most important determinant of whether an employee received commercial pension insurance is his or her level of education.

The study provides support for the societal corporatist perspective that employers who place a premium on human capital and invest significant resources in the skills of their workers will favor social policies that target benefits to a selected group of workers to reward their performance and foster commitment. A limitation of the research is that it is based on data collected soon after the town insurance scheme was introduced. The low level of employee coverage may improve once employers become more familiar with the operation of the scheme.

Employers should consider social insurance as a labor market strategy to retain staff and enhance the human resource base of the firm.

Little attention has been given to the role of employer‐funded social insurance within the ambit of labor market strategies designed to enhance the human resource base of the organisation. This is the first study to use micro level data to examine the determinants of voluntary employer contributions to social insurance.

Government R&D subsidies is a major practice to respond to market failures in most countries. The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of the government subsidies on China’s regional innovation output empirically under the regional innovation framework, for the unique regional innovation system and strong national influence of state during the period of transformation.

Based on the construction of regional innovation framework, this study empirically examined the effect of Chinese Government R&D subsidies on regional innovation during the economic transition period using the Bayesian model averaging method and carried out the robustness test under different priori assumptions.

The empirical results showed that R&D capital and human investment has a very significant impact on promoting the regional innovation output of China’s high-tech industries. Meanwhile, the Chinese Government's R&D subsidies failed, thus the goal of improving regional innovation output has not been achieved. In reverse, the effects of regional economic development level and the financial environment on regional innovation are negative but the explanatory power is minimal. Additionally, opening-up has greatly promoted regional innovation output.

The empirical findings provide scientific policy decision-making and management implications for government and firm, respectively, and its experience is a very important reference for other emerging economies. Additionally, China serves as an interesting case to examine whether government R&D subsidy is effective in an immature market.

Along with the “reform and open door” policy launched in the late 1970s, China has experienced an annual average GDP growth rate of 9.8% between 1978 and 2002 (Hu, 2003, October 19). China's economy system has also gone through a fundamental transition from a central planning system to a socialist free market economy. To cope with the booming economy and radical social changes, the higher education system of China has been undergoing a process of expansion with marketization (World Bank, 1997).

During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, ubiquitous social media has become a primary channel for information dissemination, social interactions and recreational activities. However, it remains unclear how social media usage influences nonpharmaceutical preventive behavior of individuals in response to the pandemic. This paper aims to explore the impacts of social media on COVID-19 preventive behaviors based on the theoretical lens of empowerment.

In this paper, survey data has been collected from 739 social media users in China to conduct structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis.

The results indicate that social media empowers individuals in terms of knowledge seeking, knowledge sharing, socializing and entertainment to promote preventive behaviors at the individual level by increasing each person's perception of collective efficacy and social cohesion. Meanwhile, social cohesion negatively impacts the relationship between collective efficacy and individual preventive behavior.

This study provides insights regarding the role of social media in crisis response and examines the role of collective beliefs in the influencing mechanism of social media. The results presented herein can be used to guide government agencies seeking to control the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bellows-type fluid viscous damper can be used to isolate micro vibration in high-precision satellites. The conventional model cannot describe hydraulic stiffness in the medium- and high-frequency domain of this damper. A simplified analytical model needs to be established to analyze hydraulic stiffness of the damping element in this damper.

In this paper, a bellows-type fluid viscous damper is researched, and a simplified model of the damping element in this damper is proposed. Based on this model, the hydraulic stiffness and damping of this damper in the medium- and high-frequency domains are studied, and a comparison is made between the analytical model and a finite element model to verify the analytical model.

The results show that when silicone oil has low viscosity, a model that considers the influence of the initial segment of the damping orifice is more reasonable. In the low-frequency domain, hydraulic stiffness increases quickly with frequency and remains stable when the frequency increases to a certain value; the stable stiffness can reach 106 N/m, which is much higher than the main stiffness. Excessive dynamic stiffness in the high-frequency domain will cause poor vibration isolation performance. Adding compensation bellows to the end of the original isolator may be an effective solution.

A model of the isolator containing the compensation bellows can be derived based on this analytical model. This research can also be used for dynamic modeling and vibration isolation performance analysis of a vibration isolation platform based on this bellows-type fluid viscous damper.

This paper proposed a simplified model of damping element in bellows-type fluid viscous damper, which can be used to analyze hydraulic stiffness in this damper and it was found that this damper showed stable hydraulic stiffness in the medium- and high-frequency domains.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the reliability and validity of doctoral candidates’ innovative personality model.

Based on doctoral candidates’ innovative personality model, this study took the best correlation and the worst correlation into account to predict and demonstrate their innovative ability tendencies. Matlab R2016a, a program of software programming, was used to calculate the contribution degree of each personality factor of doctoral candidates to their innovative ability tendencies.

The reliability and validity of doctoral candidates’ innovative personality model based on grey target theory have been verified, and the prediction for doctoral candidates’ innovative ability tendencies can be realized on the basis of this model.

Scientific and reasonable doctoral candidates’ innovative personality model can play a good guiding role, and its research results have certain practical significance for selecting innovative doctoral candidates, ensuring the training quality of doctoral candidates and cultivating the innovative ability of doctoral candidates. It can be promoted and applied on the basis of its trial operation in Jiangsu.

With regard to the relative degree of the influence of doctoral candidates’ individual personality factors, previous researchers seldom carried out the quantitative research. In this paper, the author sought a quantitative method to describe the degree of such influence and constructed the doctoral candidates’ innovative personality model based on grey target decision making. This study took the positive and negative off-target distance into account and demonstrated the rationality and validity of doctoral candidates’ innovative personality model.

To construct a scientific and reasonable indicator system, it is necessary to design a set of standardized indicator primary selection and optimization inspection process. The purpose of this paper is to provide theoretical guidance and reference standards for the indicator system design process, laying a solid foundation for the application of the indicator system, by systematically exploring the expert evaluation method to optimize the index system to enhance its credibility and reliability, to improve its resolution and accuracy and reduce its objectivity and randomness.

The paper is based on system theory and statistics, and it designs the main line of “relevant theoretical analysis – identification of indicators – expert assignment and quality inspection” to achieve the design and optimization of the indicator system. First, the theoretical basis analysis, relevant factor analysis and physical process description are used to clarify the comprehensive evaluation problem and the correlation mechanism. Second, the system structure analysis, hierarchical decomposition and indicator set identification are used to complete the initial establishment of the indicator system. Third, based on expert assignment method, such as Delphi assignments, statistical analysis, t-test and non-parametric test are used to complete the expert assignment quality diagnosis of a single index, the reliability and validity test is used to perform single-index assignment correction and consistency test is used for KENDALL coordination coefficient and F-test multi-indicator expert assignment quality diagnosis.

Compared with the traditional index system construction method, the optimization process used in the study standardizes the process of index establishment, reduces subjectivity and randomness, and enhances objectivity and scientificity.

The innovation point and value of the paper are embodied in three aspects. First, the system design process of the combined indicator system, the multi-dimensional index screening and system optimization are carried out to ensure that the index system is scientific, reasonable and comprehensive. Second, the experts’ background is comprehensively evaluated. The objectivity and reliability of experts’ assignment are analyzed and improved on the basis of traditional methods. Third, aim at the quality of expert assignment, conduct t-test, non-parametric test of single index, and multi-optimal test of coordination and importance of multiple indicators, enhance experts the practicality of assignment and ensures the quality of expert assignment.

This study aims to investigate the surface modification on 20CrMnTi gear steel individually treated by diamond-like carbon films and nitride coatings.

For this purpose, the mechanical properties of a-C:H, ta-C and AlCrSiN coatings are characterized by nano-indentation and scratch tests. The friction and wear behaviors of these three coatings are evaluated by ball-on-disc tribological experiments under dry contact conditions.

The results show that the a-C:H coating has the highest coating-substrate adhesion strength (495 mN) and the smoothest surface (Ra is about 0.045 µm) compared with the other two coatings. The AlCrSiN coating shows the highest mean coefficient of friction (COF), whereas the ta-C coating exhibits the lowest one (steady at about 0.16). The carbon-based coatings possess excellent self-lubricating properties compared with nitride ceramic ones, which effectively reduce the COF by about 64%. The major failure mode of carbon-based coatings in dry contact is slight abrasive wear. The damage of AlCrSiN coating is mainly adhesive wear and abrasive wear.

It is suggested that the carbon-based film can effectively improve the friction-reducing and wear resistance performance of the gear steel surface, which has a promising application prospect in the mechanical transmission field.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/ILT-05-2023-0129/